The real NASA science behind the science fiction of ‘The Martian’

Mark Watney is a science fiction character from the novel and upcoming movie “The Martian.” He’s stuck on Mars some 20 years in our future — a time when humans are making regular exploratory trips to the red planet. He has to apply all his engineering and botany education, training and skills in a day-by-day struggle to stay alive on the inhospitable surface.

What’s great about the novel and, we hope, the movie is that many of the challenges Watney faces are fairly realistic (though still, obviously, futuristic) and so are the high-risk, duct-tape-based solutions he engineers for survival.

Consequently, the novel’s semi-realism has NASA’s talented public relations people trying to bridge the gap from fiction to real NASA science in order to coattail the wildly popular, dramatic story. The space agency has put together a list of “Nine real NASA technologies” in the story. Here’s the list as well as stills from the movie: